Legoland Fireworks and the three hour wait!

We take the kids to Legoland quite a lot, at least five times this summer alone, that may sound excessive but we have Merlin annual passes giving free access to many of the theme parks in our area and Legoland is pretty easy to get to for us. It’s a great park for the kids as all the rides are kid friendly but there’s absolutely nothing there for adults, not a problem, just be aware that if you have older teenagers they are going to be thoroughly bored. With our lads at 7 and 9 they love it so we go frequently.

This Guy Fawkes we decided to take the kids to Legoland for the fireworks instead of the local ones in Watford we always go to. Everyone was excited that morning, looking forward to spending the whole day at Legoland and polishing off the evening with an Indiana Jones themed firework spectacular. What kid’s wouldn’t be, or adults big kids for that matter.

In anticipation of the large numbers of people who would be packing the place on its last weekend open this year we left early, expecting long queues to get in and for all the rides. Getting in was easy enough and as the day ticked away the queues for rides grew longer than we had ever seen before, no surprise there. The waning light and rapidly falling temperature went hand in hand with the growing throngs of excited children and slightly fraught parents, all gathering around the centre of the park and the scarily loud PA system rocking out music at levels way beyond comfortable.

We positioned ourselves on an slightly quieter embankment behind the crowds giving a spectacular view of hundreds of kids battling each other with the battery powered light sabres that were for sale all over the park. It was a scene George Lucas would have been truly proud of, blue, red and green sabres slashed through the cold night air as battle raged on into the evenings gloom.

Finally, the music was cut off and in its place the corniest Indiana Jones sound byte story ensued with the occasional pop of a firework or three. Jo and I just looked at each other and cringed, surely this wouldn’t last long… please. Well it went on for five or tem minutes and then the fireworks began properly, all set to music from the Indy films. And they were… ok. About tem minutes of fireworks finished off with a crescendo of light. If you asked me to score them it would be 4 out of 10. The kids loved them though which is the main thing. So with everyone’s appetite for explosives slated we set off for the car and our homeward journey.

Three hours later we were still sat in the car in pretty much exactly the same spot in the car park.

Three hours!

Now I expected there to be queues to get out and I expected it to take some time but that’s just insane. Entertaining two kids for three hours in a car with no more than an iPhone to play with is hell. Even worse we just couldn’t get a consistent 3G signal so watching live telly was frustratingly choppy and stop start. Way to go Legoland, you completely ruined our Guy Fawkes day out and my in-laws night out since they had been looking after my youngest for the day so the boys could go on as many rides as possible, they had to stay in until we got home at about 22:30.

Lesson learnt: Don’t go to Legoland for the fireworks, go to your local display and support them instead. They are probably just as good and at least you can walk home!